General Tso Cauliflower & Mushrooms is my healthier take on a take out stand by. General Tso Chicken is a popular dish on Chinese restaurant buffets and take out menus.
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It Isn't Really Chinese
Did you know that General Tso chicken, is an American invention? They don't eat this stuff in China. I found some great history about this dish from this humorous answer to a Quora question on the HuffPost blog: What Is the History Behind General Tso’s Chicken?
A Healthier General Tso
Personally, I'm not a fan of the restaurant chicken dish. I've always just found that, for me, the texture is often dry and chewy, and the sauce cloyingly sweet. Still, though, there's always been, in the sauce, a tantalizing hint of something really good. A little bite of heat and a promising bright tartness.
I wanted to recreate that sauce for this cauliflower and mushroom dish. But lighter and without all that sweetness. However, every recipe I found had a crazy amount of sugar. So I left the sugar out completely and didn't miss it at all. I added a little bit of fish sauce for a touch of salt and flavour. And for the spice, I used sambal oelek.
What is Sambal Oelek?
Sambal oelek is simply a chilli sauce, similar to, yet different from sriracha. It's very easy to find in most grocery stores, (in the Asian section). And if you can't find it, or don't want to make a special trip to buy it, go ahead and use sriracha, or any other Asian chilli sauce. Your General Tso sauce will still be really good, just a tiny bit different.
Sambal oelek is a staple seasoning in Indonesian, Thai, and Malaysian dishes. It's a very simple sauce made from ground chilli peppers, vinegar and salt. The name, literally, means ground chilli. It's a good one to have around when you feel like trying your hand at some authentic dishes, or just for a change-up.
Cauliflower plus Mushrooms = Delicious
But finally, General Tso Cauliflower and Mushrooms is crazy easy, and incredibly delicious. You can have this on its own with steamed rice or noodles, or as part of a larger menu. There won't be any leftovers.
Want more vegetarian cauliflower dishes? Try Cauliflower Marranca or Roasted Cauliflower Lentil Curry
Recipe
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General Tso Cauliflower & Mushrooms
Ingredients
- ½ cup low sodium vegetable stock
- 3 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce*
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or any Asian chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce*
- 2 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 medium cauliflower cored and cut into bite sized florets
- 2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
- 1 green onion thinly sliced
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of water. Add cauliflower and allow to par boil 2-3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- In a jar with a lid, combine stock, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sambal oelek, cornstarch, and fish sauce. Put lid on jar and shake well to combine.
- Heat a medium skillet (cast iron works best) over medium-high heat. Add peanut and sesame oil. Add mushrooms and cook, turning, until starting to brown, about 2 minutes.
- Add cauliflower and cook, stirring, until brown and fork tender, about 1 minute.
- Shake jar one more time, and pour the sauce over cauliflower mushroom mixture.
- Cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened and glossy, about 1 minute.
- Remove from heat, and garnish with green onion.
- Serve hot, with steamed rice or noodles
Notes
Nutrition
Julia
This is a really interesting way of using cauliflower! At the moment I only eat cauliflower if I steam and mash it, so I'll try this out 🙂
Julia
Colleen
You'll be glad you did try it Julia! Cauliflower is so versatile, and this is a delicious way to enjoy it.
Beth
I had this for dinner with rice. It was delicious!
Colleen
Hi Beth! I'm so glad that you tried it and liked it! And super happy to hear from you. Cheers.
Ayngelina Brogan
Did you watch the Netflix documentary on General Tso? It was fascinating.
This month I'm really focusing on eating more vegetables so this recipe is perfect, thank you!
Colleen
Hi Ayngelina! No I didn't watch it, but I'm putting it on my Netflix to watch now. Thanks for the tip 🙂
Loreto Nardelli
I loved that you used and trusted your intuition. I love Cauliflower We did a Arabic rendition with it and also an Indian sweet chili, but had not thought about Asian. It sounds so good I am going to try this for sure and let you know.
Have a great day!
Loreto@SugarLoveSpices
Colleen
Thanks Loreto. I love cauliflower, and everything you can do with it. Your recipes sound wonderful and I'll be checking them out! 🙂
Elaine @Flavour and Savour
Cannot wait to try this! I'm a big fan of Sambal Oelek but NOT a fan of Sriracha! These flavours would be terrific on cauliflower. Thanks!
Colleen
Thanks Elaine! We love both in our house 🙂 But the Sambal Oelek is the best choice for this dish.
Danielle
What a wonderful idea for cauliflower! I love the flavors of General Tso's chicken, so I think this is a fun take on that. And I love the use of fish sauce, I think it adds such a great flavor to so many dishes.
Colleen
Thanks Danielle! If you love General Tso chicken, I know you'll love this, too. I would love to hear back if you try it. Cheers 🙂